On August 6th, more than 75 members of the Greater Hartford peace and justice community gathered for a potluck dinner and a program of remembrance marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima and three days later of Nagasaki.

Hosting the Hartford Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day of Remembrance was the Unitarian Society of Hartford (USH) at their Meeting House on Bloomfield Avenue. Other co-sponsoring organizations were: Hope Out Loud, No Nukes/No War, and the UN Association of CT. Masters of Ceremonies for the evening were JoAnne Bauer, a longtime social justice activist and Rick Blanks, also of the Hartford community.

Program participants included musicians Eric Paradine and David Brown, both singer-songwriter veterans of the Hope Out Loud coffeehouses, and flutist David Pontrelli. The solemn remembrance started with a moment of silence to honor the casualties and the survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Speaker Eric Stamm, a lifelong peace activist, presented details about the historic and current efforts toward global abolition of nuclear weapons, with focus on the U.S. responsibility and its limits in non-proliferation.

Another speaker, Mike Winterfield, a member of the Tree of Life Education Fund, thanked the Social Justice committee of USH for graciously hosting the event and then shared a presentation about nuclear weaponry prepared by Joyce Rawitscher, a chosen speaker who, due to an emergency, was not able to attend the evening's event.

Poet and student at Middletown High School, Carolyn Reid, read her original poem about the significance of telling stories. Then, members of CT Citizens for Peace and Justice presented Joe Wasserman with the Ardent Activist Award for his abiding dedication to the cause of nuclear non-proliferation and for his lobbying efforts to CT members of Congress.

Woven throughout the evening's program were projected drawings and original writings by witnesses to the Hiroshima atomic bombing, collected in the book, Wasurerarenai Anohi: The Day Never to Be Forgotten. Text readers for the evening were: Gabriel Miguel Lopez, a young Hartford artist and entrepreneur; Patricia A. Johnson, a community development and education consultant; Helen Koulidobrova, a professor at CCSU and co-chair of the USH Social Justice committee, and Otis Cox, a West End resident and community representative.

With another moment of silence for victims of ALL wars, the indoor portion of the event closed, as David Pontrelli led the audience out-of-doors for the annual candle-lighting ceremony and community-sing-along.

The diverse program, planned by the organizing committee, integrated both art and articulation to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons and to share a vision of a nuclear -free world. Members of the Committee included: Barbara Albert, JoAnne Bauer, Wayne Coste, Helen Raisz, Barbara Sarmento, Edward Savage, Caron Shannahan, Eric Stamm, Joe Wasserman, and Mike Winterfield.

Information about the annual event may be found at www.hopeoutloud.org or on Facebook at: Hartford Hiroshima Day Remembrance.

This item was posted by a community contributor. To read more about community contributors, click here.